I own Chevron (CVX - $100.81) and have made a pretty penny holding the shares. Owning oil companies has helped make up for my losses in financial shares this year. The other nice part about holding Chevron shares is that I can do things like appoint Amazon Watch as my proxy this year to represent me at the meeting.
How to Turn the Polysilicon Supply Problem Into a Profitable Solution (Part 2) Written By: Eben Esterhuizen 2007-10-22 22:54:26 As an alcoholic, the first step to recovery is to admit that you are an alcoholic. The same principle applies to Wall Street banks in the aftermath of the recent credit crunch: the first step to recovery is to disclose the size of losses during the recent market turmoil. At the start of October, several banks disclosed their losses, with the Citigroup CFO saying that they were returning to a “normal earnings environment”. These confessions sparked a rally in global stock markets as investors decided that Wall Street banks were on their way to recovery. But we, at The Panelist, are not popping the champagne just yet – it seems likely that solar companies will suffer from a nasty hangover when the dust settles.
HSBC Launches Climate Change Index Written By: David Neubert 2007-09-26 11:07:34 Seems like every financial institution is getting on climate change and socially responsible investing. Somehow I think they are a bit ahead of most investors. I'd be much more interested in data about companies that see themselves as responsible for the planet and how they perform financially versus companies that exist only to reward their executives.
The HSBC Index tracks 300 companies worldwide that make money from fighting climate change, such as wind turbine and solar panel manufacturers and biofuel companies.
John Thain to Takeover at Merrill: I'm a Buyer Written By: David Neubert 2007-11-14 16:22:24 Well it turns out Joe Capone is wrong after predicting to me months ago that John Thain would run Citigroup after Prince was fired. But he's not that wrong because after watching Thain's interview on CNBC I'm sure he was offered the job and chose Merrill instead.
Knowning that Thain worked in Mortgage Backed Securities at Goldman and the fact that he got to see the books of Merril before he took the job were two factors that made me buy Merrill Lynch (MER - $57.88 close) in the aftermarket today at $58.15. I don't think Thain would have taken the CEO job at Merrill if he didn't figure out that the mortgage positions there are managable.
Merrill Lynch is trading cheap, so I'm getting one of the best private wealth management franchises in the world at a bargain.
Besides, now that I've trimmed my broker exposure a bit, I'm putting it back up with Merrill. Now I feel like I own them all. Might Merrill go down before it goes up? It the absense of further bad news, I'm likely to be a buyer if it does.
Level 3 Assets at Big Brokers - Not as Scary as People Say Written By: David Neubert 2007-12-14 12:08:58 Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com dug up the ratios for level 3 assets at each major Wall Street broker. This ratio is seen by some to be "scary." I don't find it as scary as some. The assets in Level 3 are mark-to-model. Some of these could include complex derivatives for which there is no market that exactly hedges assets, hence the high risk in panic liquidation but not so much in cash flow. Their markets are worried about some of those with the highest ratios of Level 3 assets to capital. Personally, I trust the risk managers at firms like Goldman Sachs (GS - $212.89), Morgan Stanley (MS - $50.88) and Lehman Brother (LEH - $63.03) to be able to correctly value these situations. I do believe the market will continue to focus on this ratio, which will encourage firms to try to move more assets out of this category.
The HSBC Index tracks 300 companies worldwide that make money from fighting climate change, such as wind turbine and solar panel manufacturers and biofuel companies.
Well it turns out Joe Capone is wrong after predicting to me months ago that John Thain would run Citigroup after Prince was fired. But he's not that wrong because after watching Thain's interview on CNBC I'm sure he was offered the job and chose Merrill instead.